Teaching happiness at UCLA

When Emily van Sonnenberg was in a wheelchair five years ago after surviving a fatal car crash, she was told she would never walk again. Then a friend gave her a book by Martin Seligman, the father of positive psychology, which she says changed her life. She adopted Seligman's methods of positive thinking and miraculously was able to walk again.

Wanting to share the methods of positive psychology and achieving happiness with others, van Sonnenberg created the course "Happiness" at UCLA, part of the Undergraduate Student Initiated Education program which allows students to teach other students a course not already offered at UCLA.

The course teaches and assigns practical applications of positive psychology such as keeping daily gratitude and intention journals.